Sometime Around Midnight
by akiki03
Summary: AU/New Moon - Begins after Edward leaves Bella in the woods but that's just the beginning.


_"You. . .don't. . .want me?" I tried out the words, confused by the way they sounded, placed in that order._

"_No."_

I laid against the dirt and grass, leaves and twigs, not caring that the rain was slowly turning the earth beneath me into sticky mud. Not caring that the branches on the ground were poking into my oh, so human skin. Nothing mattered now just as nothing would ever matter again.

I was empty. As black inside as the night sky around me.

Off in the distance the voices called again and part of me knew that I should answer them, a grunt or a soft whimper, something that would tell them the direction to travel in but I didn't. I pulled my legs tighter to my chest and with one arm wrapped around them, I attempted to use the other as a shield to keep the cold rain from my face. It was a bane attempt at best and I soon let the hand join the other that was scooped around my legs.

I closed my eyes. There was no difference if they were opened or closed as the night sky and canopy of trees had left the surrounding area in an envelope of blackness. At least with them closed I didn't have to wipe the rain from my face, it just dripped down leaving a long trail of wetness in its wake. It was fitting, the rain became the tears that I couldn't cry and I welcomed it.

Seconds passed into minutes, minutes passed into hours and the booming voices seemed to all but disappear into the darkness. Like everything else had. Like _he_ had. The fainter they got, the more I should have worried but the feeling never came.

I was so tired.

I might've fallen asleep at one point or rather my brain just shut off and with nothing to stare at but black, I couldn't tell the difference. Easing my eyes open, I was greeted by the omnipotent nothingness. It had been hours, I think, since I'd made my way into the darkness of the leaves and woods, since I'd fallen to the ground and curled into myself. There were no sounds around me, the rain had slowed to just a light drizzle and every now and again, I'd hear the splatter of a droplet onto a nearby leaf but nothing more. Nobody called my name, voices filled with worry and hope were no longer. They'd stopped looking or were just far off the mark.

A light breeze blew across my wet form and I shivered and pushed into the soft earth seeking warmth that I wasn't going to find. Another drop of rain hit another leaf and my breath came out in a shaky sigh. Somewhere, not too far away, someone let out a shrill laugh. I didn't know which direction it came in and it didn't occur to me to care.

_"Tsk. Tsk"_ A voice traveled on the wind and I lifted my head slightly, just slightly, but saw nothing around me and down it went again into the wet and sticky mud.

Another breeze traveled across my already goose bumped flesh and I shuddered a breath, closing my eyes to the night, the dark, the cold, the wet. I concentrated on the sound of my breathing, in and out, in and out, slow and steady, but the sound of a twig cracking broke through my concentration and my eyes opened again.

"What do we have here?" the darkness asked and I failed to answer. Words held no meaning for me.

I looked towards the ground and the smell of moss and dirt was replaced by something sweet and honey like. It felt wrong to smell that again after such a short time and I wondered briefly if I was, in fact, dreaming. A vivid dream that could replace all other senses and bring me exactly what I wanted.

Footsteps moved around me, crunching leaves and breaking twigs that were strewn on the ground around my still body and I knew that this was a dream. Nobody else was out here. The many voices had already returned to wherever they'd came from and I was left alone. Utterly alone.

"Bella."

It was my name, I recognized that much, but the voice came out as a hiss. There was hate behind my name. I chanced opening an eye and directing it towards where I knew the sky to be. I was greeted with pale skin and fiery red hair. A nail traced the contour of my chin and my eyelids fell shut once again. I knew who this was. This is how things would end, I thought. In the woods, wet and cold, left alone by the one person that promised to always be there.

"Dinner on a silver platter," Victoria chuckled. I'd only heard her talk a handful of times and I knew I'd never get used to the contrast between her appearance and her voice. I could hear her breathing, smelling the air for a setup, a trap, but there was none.

I licked my lips, grimacing at the hint of dirt on them and somewhere, somehow, I found my own voice. Not even bothering to open my eyes, I spoke softly, she'd be able to hear, "Nobody's coming."

She was surprised, by my words or the fact that I spoke, and the leaves closest to her rustled when she flew down to my level. "Not your precious Cullens? _Edward." _She spat his name and I winced, a shooting pain moved through my body.

I opened my eyes and her red ones stared back at me. I could smell her honey sweet breath and my stomach somersaulted. "They're gone," I answered, my voice dull and free of any emotion. I had no emotions. I felt nothing and I was thankful for that because I'd heard that death hurt. I wouldn't feel a thing.

She raised a brow and her tongue moved swiftly over her ruby red lips. Opening my eyes fully, I took a good look at her and knew enough to know that she'd eaten recently. Her eyes were a deep burgundy, a color that I knew occurred after a vampire drank human blood recently. That should've been a comfort but it made me feel nothing at all. My thoughts flew back to the black orbs that had greeted me my first day at school and then how they changed to that honey colored topaz after his absence. Her nail ran along my cold skin again and I was rudely pulled back into the present, the here and now. She was in mid-sentence when I realized what was happening and I stared back at her before she repeated her question.

"When will they return? Answer me, girl. They wouldn't leave you here alone, so you'll tell me when they will return." My mute response had angered her, where she was once playful, darting around the forest and whispering my name, she was now barking orders, hissing at me when I didn't give her the response she wanted. It was inevitable, really. Victoria didn't like me to begin with and my insolence only compounded that fact.

I wanted to answer her if only to get her to leave me be or to get this over with but the words were stuck in the back of my throat, bile rising along with them. I swallowed hard and closed my eyes. Breathe. In and out. "Never. They're never coming back." My stomach flipped and I blanched but Victoria didn't notice; a smile had grown across her face before I'd even finished speaking. I watched her stand, the Cheshire grin never leaving her ghostly face. I could almost hear the thoughts radiating from her. There would be no retribution for killing stupid, childish, unimportant, unworthy, waste of space Bella.

Her victory was short lived when a rustling came from deep into the black of the trees. I looked, not caring who it was because I knew it wouldn't be the one person I wanted it to be, but there was nobody standing where the sound had come from. Turning my attention back to Victoria, I saw her expression change from furrowed brow to nothing in an instant. She was still standing there though, which meant good news for her and bad news for whatever was going to happen to me.

"Victoria. . ." The voice startled me and my head jerked in the direction it came from. I'd heard that voice before. Between the leaves stepped a dark figure, all tall body and broad shoulders of Laurent. He stepped with a purpose, only shooting me a uninterested glance once before raising his arms to cross them disapprovingly over his chest, all attention on the female in front of him. "What are you playing at? You think because they're gone, they won't care about her? He will find you and you will burn."

I snorted a laugh and for reasons unknown to me, I stood. Pulled my frozen body from the mud and the muck and stomped between them. I could've let him convince her that I wasn't worth the price of death, but his words were lies. All of them lies. And because death by the hands of Victoria would be much kinder than a thousand years without Edward, I spoke. "You have no idea what you're talking about, Laurent._ He's _gone. They're all gone! They don't care about me anymore . . ." My voice trailed off into something just a touch above a whisper. "If they even did at all."

Surprise showed on both their faces and any other time I might've been proud, but not now. I just wanted it to be done. I couldn't run faster or fight longer, so I gave myself to them. A neatly wrapped present in Bella wrapping paper. I placed a hand on each of their chests and pushed but it was like trying to widen an alley with only your own strength. They didn't move an inch. "Just leave me alone!"

I watched as they exchanged looks and then I lost interest. Walking back to where I had come from, I lowered myself to the ground and pulled myself back into the ball and watched my breath shake a leaf. They hadn't moved but I no longer felt their eyes on me.

"No, Victoria," Laurent said in a hushed voice, a warning for whatever it was that she was thinking. He knew her well because she hadn't said a word since he stepped between the trees.

"Just think of it," she spoke at last, her voice full of enthusiasm. "It would be amazing. Much worse than anything else I had planned."

The hulk of a man heaved a sigh at the same time I did and the leaf flipped twice before landing a couple inches away from my face. I'd always liked the fall. There was just something about everything dying, but not really, that intrigued me. It was a renewal of sorts.

"You're not to drag it out," he warned her again, and I wondered if she would listen. Probably not. "In fact." He sighed again and I wondered if vampires could get headaches because I was sure Victoria would be the cause of many. "We'll do it together."

I raised my head and a brow at that but all I saw was Victoria, Cheshire grin intact, stalking towards me. She practically purred when she knelt in front of my raised head. "C'mon, pet. Up and at 'em." Her hand tightened around my bicep and yanked, but I didn't move to stand. Let her do it here. Here where I lost my family, my love, my world. Let me lose my life in the same spot.

Her eyes flashed in anger and her hand tightened its hold, but I still didn't move. "Get up!" she snarled, showing her teeth. Lifting her head to at Laurent, he moved easily across the slick around and pried her vice grip from me.

"There isn't much time," he told her, obviously aware of something that I wasn't because I was sure they had all the time in the world. I was the one that was running out of it. His arm moved beneath my knees and around me back and he lifted me so easily and I didn't struggle. There was no point in struggling any longer. I was drowning in a rip tide and I couldn't see the shore, struggling would only make it worse.

A gust of wind blew through me and carried with it the howl of a wolf and I felt Laurent stiffen next to me. "This is it." He spoke in a hushed whisper and pulled Victoria to his side. My thoughts were muddled and the words they were saying didn't make any sense to me. A wolf meant nothing to them when they had me in their grasp. It would be trading filet mignon for New York Strip.

I heard a snarl and snap behind me and I turned my head from its comfortable cradle between Laurent's chest and the crook of his arm to look at the woods. What stood before me was an amazing sight. I'd never seen a wolf in the wild before and it was nothing short of breathtaking. Like everything else this night, his fur was as black as the nothing above me, but his eyes told a different story. It's eyes were full of fire and brimstone and he bared his sharp teeth at the three of us. Victoria hissed in return but Laurent stayed stoic, his grip tightening on my frail form.

A glance at Victoria showed a hint of anger but her eyes stayed locked on that of the canine's while her hand moved down my cheek to my neck, across my throbbing pulse. "You're too late," she sang and Laurent lifted me to expose my snow white skin. Lowering her head, I felt her cool breath against my skin and then all I felt was pain.

In my false state of bravado, I hadn't thought of what I'd do when the inevitable came. Had I fooled myself into thinking that it would never happen? Of course not. I knew the instant I saw the fiery feline before me that my life was going to end, but I had been so sure of my state that I never thought of the possibility of pain. This pain rivaled even that of James' bite and my body thrashed, but Laurent held me strong.

Letting loose a piercing scream, I felt each of Victoria's teeth sink through my skin and muscle. They were no match for the sharp instruments of a killer. And then the fire took over and I heard Victoria's piercing laugh and the howl of the wolf and they mixed together to form a sound I knew would stay with me until death. Then Laurent sunk his teeth into the other side and my cry came out duller than before because the shock was gone and the pain was miniscule at best. I couldn't help my eyes flying open and before we raced into the cover of darkness, before the firey pain engulfed my every sense, I thought I saw sadness in the large black wolf's eyes before he let out a whimper and bowed his head.


End file.
